Stanford Constitutional Law Center

Overview

The Stanford Constitutional Law Center, founded in September 2006 by former dean Kathleen M. Sullivan and Derek Shaffer '00, grows out of the long and distinguished tradition of constitutional law scholarship at Stanford Law School. The Center seeks to carry on that tradition in a variety of ways—academic conferences, public lectures, policy research projects, and pro bono litigation—aimed at gathering consensus and advancing constitutional norms both domestically and internationally. Stanford law students, particularly those enrolled in a Constitutional Law Workshop, are intimately involved in all of the Center's activities.

Since its inception, the Center has been actively contributing to constitutional litigation in our nation's courts, with special emphasis upon individuals' speech and privacy rights and the structural separation of powers within our system of government. The Center has also sponsored a variety of conferences, lectures, and other events gathering experts from around the world to address issues ranging from constitutional reform and the formation of new constitutions, to developments affecting voting rights in our democracy, to the interplay between national security and civil liberties.

Programs

The Center runs four interrelated programs, each aimed at promoting constitutional inquiry and understanding, particularly within the Center's substantive areas of focus. The Center is led by Director Kathleen M. Sullivan and Executive Director Derek L. Shaffer, with the assistance of Administrative Director Diana Jansons Quihuis.

Conferences and Speakers

The Center sponsors and hosts a variety of conferences, symposia, and speakers in order to promote constitutional discussion and debate within Stanford Law School and beyond. These are reflected in its schedule of past and upcoming events, as regularly updated.

Academic Research

The Center pursues academic research through Fellows who are appointed annually. The Center's inaugural Fellow, Laura Donohue (SLS 2006), is studying anti-terrorism initiatives in the United States and United Kingdom and their consequences for individual liberty, privacy, and property rights.

Litigation

The Center contributes to the process of constitutional adjudication by assisting in litigation in the nation's courts at both the trial and the appellate level, in both the Federal and State systems. The Center is prepared to do so through its own staff and resources, and also in concert with other advocates whose efforts might specially benefit from the Center's expertise in constitutional analysis. Cases in which the Center is involved are listed here, as regularly updated.

Student Workshop

At the intersection of the Center's programs is a student workshop. Here, law students work in close concert with the Center's staff during the academic year to support, sustain, and shape the Center's efforts by preparing research papers as well as working on actual cases in which the Center is involved.

Constitutional Litigation

Students working under the supervision of relevant faculty (typically in teams of three as part of a constitutional law workshop) are integrally involved in the Center's litigation efforts. Each of the submissions below reflects the work of the relevant student team at every phase of development, including drafting.

Challenge to free speech in broadcasting in FCC v. FOX (Supreme Court)

  • Decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in favor of Respondents, granting petition for review (June 4, 2007)
  • Petition for Writ of Certiorari by the Solicitor General (November 1, 2007)
  • Brief of NBC Universal Inc., and NBC Telemundo License Co. Petition for a Writ of Certiorari in opposition to the Second Circuit (February 1, 2008)
  • Brief of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center for Amici Named State Broadcasters Associations in support of the Respondents to the U.S. Supreme Court (August 8, 2008)

Challenge to Prison's Withholding of Dietary Accommodations from a Muslim Prisoner in Shakur v. Arizona (Ninth Circuit)

Challenge to Prison's Suppression of an Inmate's First Amendment and Other Constitutional Rights in Gronquist v. Washington (Ninth Circuit)

Challenge to Legislative Restrictions on Issue Advocacy in WRTL v. FEC (Supreme Court)

Challenge to "Millionaires' Amendment" of Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in Davis v. FEC (Supreme Court)

Challenge to Warrantless Wiretaps in ACLU v. NSA (Sixth Circuit)

  • Decision of United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan ruling warrantless wiretapping unconstitutional (August 17, 2006)
  • Brief for the Appellants (Government) to the Sixth Circuit in ACLU v. NSA (October 16, 2006)
  • Brief for the Appellees (Challengers) to the Sixth Circuit in ACLU v. NSA (November 13, 2006)
  • Brief of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center for Amici Constitutional Law Scholars and Former Government Officials to the Sixth Circuit, In Favor of Challengers in ACLU v. NSA (November 17, 2006)
  • Reply Brief for the Appellants (Government) to the Sixth Circuit in ACLU v. NSA (December 4, 2006)

Challenge to Denial of Habeas Rights for Guantanamo Detainees in Hamdan II (Supreme Court)

  • Petition of Hamdan and Khadr for Review by the U.S. Supreme Court (February 27, 2007)
  • Brief of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center for Amici Scholars and Former Government Officials Supporting Petitioners' Request for Review by the Supreme Court (March 29, 2007)
  • Brief of the United States Opposing Review by the Supreme Court (March 29, 2007)

Challenge to Warrantless Transfer of Telephone Data to NSA in Hepting v. AT&T (Ninth Circuit)

  • Brief of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center for Amici Electronic Privacy Information Center, Center for Democracy and Technology and Computer Scientists for Professional Responsibility Supporting Plaintiffs' Standing (May 2, 2007)

Constitutional Controversies

The Center regularly identifies debates over important constitutional issues, and it collects and organizes various contributions to those debates for ease of public reference. These are set out below and updated on an ongoing basis. If you have or know of a salient contribution that you believe should be added, please alert the Center's Administrative Director.

Presidential Signing Authority

Warrantless Wiretaps

Feature Publication

As part of the mission of the The Stanford Constitutional Law Center to encourage exploration of current constitutional issues we are proud to share the latest book published by our inaugural Fellow, Dr. Laura K. Donohue, The Cost of Counterterrorism: Power, Politics and Liberty.

About the Book

In the aftermath of a terrorist attack political stakes are high: legislators fear being seen as lenient or indifferent and often grant the executive broader authorities without thorough debate. The judiciary's role, too, is restricted: constitutional structure and cultural norms narrow the courts' ability to check the executive at all but the margins. The dominant 'Security or Freedom' framework for evaluating counterterrorist law thus fails to capture an important characteristic: increased executive power that shifts the balance between branches of government. This book re-calculates the cost of counterterrorist law to the United Kingdom and the United States, arguing that the damage caused is significantly greater than first appears. Donohue warns that the proliferation of biological and nuclear materials, together with willingness on the part of extremists to sacrifice themselves, may drive each country to take increasingly drastic measures with a resultant shift in the basic structure of both states.

The Cost of Counterterrorism: Power, Politics and Liberty was reviewed in The New York Review of Books.

In the News

Calendar of Events

Comprehensive and penetrating, The Cost Of Counterterrorism is an eye-opening examination of how we too often react to terrorism by promoting executive power. Dr. Laura K. Donohue will be discussing the cost of counterterrorist law and her new book at the following events.

April 4, 2008 Winston-Salem, North Carolina
April 23, 2008 Stanford Law School, California
April 25, 2008 Calgary, Canada
May 6, 2008 San Francisco, California
May 13, 2008 Mountain View, California
May 14, 2008 Los Altos, California
May 19, 2008 Los Angeles, California
May 20, 2008 San Francisco, California
May 21, 2008 Chicago, Illinois
May 29, 2008 Akron, Ohio
May 29, 2008 Eastern Michigan, Michigan
May 30, 2008 Stanford University, California
June 2, 2008 Napa, California
June 3, 2008 Bloomington, Illinois
June 3, 2008 Detroit, Michigan
June 5, 2008 Fresno, California
June 9, 2008 Phoenix, Arizona
June 11, 2008 Washington, DC
June 12, 2008 Washington, DC
June 13, 2008 Washington, DC
June 13, 2008 Oxford, North Carolina
June 17, 2008 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
June 19, 2008 Tulsa, Oklahoma
June 22, 2008 San Francisco, California
July 2, 2008 Amherst, Massachusetts
July 2, 2008 Portland, Oregon
August 22-25, 2008 Sun Valley, Idaho
September 9, 2008 New York, New York
September 10, 2008 Washington, DC

News & Announcements

Courses

Faculty

Kathleen M. Sullivan
Stanley Morrison Professor of Law and Former Dean
650 725.9875

Lecturers

Derek Shaffer
Lecturer in Law
650 723.7794

Fellows

Laura K. Donohue
Fellow
650 725.5364

Laura Donohue is the inaugural Fellow at the Center, researching anti-terrorism initiatives in the United States and United Kingdom and their consequences for individual liberty, privacy, and property rights. She is also a member of Stanford Law School's Class of 2006. Fellows such as Ms. Donohue are appointed on an annual basis.

Program Contacts

Kathleen M. Sullivan
Director
650 725.9875

Kathleen Sullivan is the Center's Director, shaping its agenda and overseeing all aspects of its operations, including the Constitutional Law Workshop for students. A nationally prominent scholar and teacher of constitutional law, she previously served as Stanford Law School's Dean and presently is its Stanley Morrison Professor of Law.

Derek Shaffer
Executive Director of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center and Lecturer in Law
650 723.7794

Derek Shaffer is the Center's Executive Director, working closely with Professor Sullivan to help shape its agenda and carrying out its day-to-day operations, including its litigation activities. He also serves as a Lecturer in Law, assisting with the Constitutional Law Workshop.

Laura K. Donohue
Fellow
650 725.5364

Laura Donohue is the inaugural Fellow at the Center, researching anti-terrorism initiatives in the United States and United Kingdom and their consequences for individual liberty, privacy, and property rights. She is also a member of Stanford Law School's Class of 2006. Fellows such as Ms. Donohue are appointed on an annual basis.

Diana Jansons Quihuis
Administrative Director
650 724.2879

Diana Jansons Quihuis is the central contact for the Center and handles all of its everyday administration. She also coordinates the management of cases in which the Center is involved, and shares responsibility with the Executive Director in planning events. Prior to holding this position, she supported Professor Kathleen Sullivan as Dean, and Dean Larry Kramer.

Recorded & Past Events

November 2008

September 2008

August 2008

June 2008

May 2008

April 2008

March 2008

February 2008

November 2007

October 2007

September 2007

April 2007

March 2007

February 2007

January 2007

September 2006

Press Releases

  • The Stanford Constitutional Law Center Files Amicus Brief with the Sixth Circuit in ACLU v. NSA
    November 20, 2006
    Related: Stanford Constitutional Law Center
  • Stanford Law School Launches Constitutional Law Center
    August 31, 2006
    Related: Derek Shaffer, Kathleen M. Sullivan, Larry Kramer, Stanford Constitutional Law Center

    • Contact Information

    Stanford Constitutional Law Center
    Crown Quadrangle
    559 Nathan Abbott Way
    Stanford, CA 94305-8610
    650 723.0455

    Related Links

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